DOCSLIB.ORG

Propaganda: Theoretical Analysis on Miral Movie Mara Mihaela Panaite1

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Propaganda: Theoretical Analysis on Miral Movie Mara Mihaela Panaite1 artciencia.com Year IX . Number 18 . December 2014 – June 2015 Propaganda: Theoretical Analysis on Miral Movie Mara Mihaela Panaite1 Abstract The article represents a theoretical analysis of propaganda on Miral movie. The aim of this article is to illustrate the concepts of war propaganda, by identifying the instruments of propaganda presented in the film and their effects. I also consider that this analysis represents an important topic because it concerns the Israeli-Palestinian war, which unfortunately has not ended yet. Key Words: propaganda, instruments of propaganda, movie, 1 National School of Political Science and Public Administration, Romania. _________________________________________________________________________________1 www.artciencia.com ISSN 1646-3463 Propaganda: Theoretical Analysis on “Miral” Movie Mara Mihaela Panaite “We must remember that in time of war what is said on the enemy’s side of the front is always propaganda, and what is said on our side of the front is truth and righteousness, the cause of humanity and a crusade for peace.” Walter Lippmann Short movie summary: Miral is a 2010 movie directed by Julian Schnabel and screenplayed by Rula Jebreal, based on her novel. Miral is the story of four women whose lives intertwine in searching for justice, hope and reconciliation amid a world overshadowed by conflict, rage and war. The story begins in 1948 in Jerusalem, when Hind Husseini opens an orphanage for refugee children, whose number grew alarmingly from one day to another. One of these children is Miral, seventeen years old teenager, who arrived at the orphanage at the age of seven, after the tragic death of her mother. During the period when the Intifada resistance movement was established, the girls from the orphanage of Mrs. Hind were sent to ensure the education of children in refugee camps. Miral was sent to Ramallah, a camp located in the eastern Balkans. Here she met Hani, a political activist with who falls in love. Taking part in the daily atrocities of the war, Miral finds herself in a personal battle that reflects her own dilemma: to fight like those before her or to follow the teachings of Mother Hind, namely that education is the only solution that open the way to peace. 1. Propaganda concept Along the years propaganda concept collect a lot of definitions and dimensions. A suitable definition of propaganda that applies very well with our movie analysis is mentioned in Art and propaganda in the twentieth century. Here Toby Clark highlights that “wartime propaganda attempts to make people adjust to abnormal conditions, and adapt their priorities and moral standards to accommodate the needs of war. To achieve this, propagandists have often represented warfare by using conventional visual codes already established in mass culture. Thus, recruitment posters have often been designed to look like advertisements or movie posters“(Clark, 1997: 103). Another definition of propaganda comes from Jacques Ellul. He defined propaganda as “a set of methods employed by an organized group that wants to bring about the active or passive participation in its actions of a mass of individuals, psychologically unified through psychological manipulations and incorporated in an organization” (Ellul 1973: 61). First developed by the Lumière brothers in 1896, film provided a unique means of accessing large audiences at once. “Film was the first universal mass medium in that it could simultaneously influence viewers as individuals and members of a crowd, which led to it quickly becoming a tool for governments and non-state organizations to project a desired ideological message”(Taylor, 1979: 30-31). This connection between propaganda and ideology is important because “propaganda is commonly understood as discourse serving ideology” (Burnett 1989:127). _________________________________________________________________________________2 www.artciencia.com ISSN 1646-3463 artciencia.com Year IX . Number 18 . December 2014 – June 2015 According to Franck Stern, films are effective propaganda tools because they establish visual icons of historical reality and consciousness. Furthermore he consider that propaganda define public attitudes of the time at which they were filmed. Also the purpose of propaganda is to mobilize people for a common cause, or to bring attention to an unknown cause (Stern, 2001). As we have seen propaganda concepts vary. What we have to note here is that the propagandist purpose is to influence the attitudes and the behavior of the target group, while the target group is formed by individuals who are an integrated part of the society. 2. Propaganda instruments Propaganda instruments are defined as deliberate and functional instructions and ways of interaction for influencing people. In the literature about propaganda it is common to refer to the seven propaganda devices defined by The Institute for Propaganda Analysis on 1937 (Jakhall, 1937: 217-223): name calling, glittering generalities, transfer, testimonials, band wagon, card stacking and plain folks. Such classification is not conceptual and the wording is also more suitable for popular sciences. According to the propaganda model there are three levels of manipulation, namely, socio-cultural context, social and technological. The socio-cultural context level is a cognitive one and more specifically it arguments are based on symbols and stereotypes deriving from that. The importance of symbols in propaganda is based on the “understanding that ideological signs are connected more to symbols and less to issues” (Conover and Feldman 2004: 213). Closely connected to symbols are the stereotypes. Stereotypes are generalizations, particularly the “attribution to an individual of characteristics ascribed as universal to a group from which that individual is drawn” (O´Shaughnessy 2004: 57). In his book, Public Opinion, Lippmann says that “people are searching for the first familiar sign and after that stereotypes fitting to that sign are applied” (Lippmann 1997: 59). The social level is an ideological one and concerns the possibility to guide the behavior of people directing them to act according to the role model set by opinion leaders. In case there are no trusted leaders, people tend to base their decisions on behaving and thinking styles concerning the values presented by the other members of the same social group. “This mean that people tend to decide on the right and the wrong relying on others” (Cialdini 2005: 121). The technological level is based on either censorship or on manipulating with facts and with their interpretations. According to van Dijk “media chooses facts which are in accordance with the interests of elites, influencing by that the mental models of broader public, while the possibilities for minorities to present their cause in mass media is limited” (van Dijk 2005: 218). 2.1 Etiquette: Etiquette is defined by experts from the Institute for Propaganda Analysis as "the method, whereby an idea that was labeled in a bad way, in order to make the receiver to reject, to condemn the idea without giving any attention to any arguments which support" (Lee, 1937). By using this method, the distraction seeks from a sensitive issue to a point that throws discredit on people who support the ideas of that sensitive issue. A very good example is the usage of the word “terrorist” when we talk about “someone who fights for liberty”. _________________________________________________________________________________3 www.artciencia.com ISSN 1646-3463 Propaganda: Theoretical Analysis on “Miral” Movie Mara Mihaela Panaite Name Calling: Terrorist, Terrorism The concept of terrorism is frequently used nowadays by many people. Searching upon the origin of this term, we notice that this is a French word, which referred specifically to state terrorism as practiced by the French government during the 1793–1794 Reign of terror. Through years the meaning of this word has changed. “Terrorism is a distinct form of political modern action intended to threaten the ability of one state to ensure the security of its members.” (Townshend, 2002: 5). Laquer point out that “in the case of terrorism the subjects base on fact that they are not known and identifiable"(Laqueur, 1987: 146). We observe in film the same situation, concerning Fatma, Jamal’s’ sister. She was convicted for terrorism because she placed a bomb in the cinema. When she did this thing, she based on the fact she’s a women, and nobody will suspect her of brewing a real attack. But her attempt failed, the bomb did not explode. She received two life sentences and another one because she hasn’t stood up in front of the judge. She spent ten years in prison. After that she was banished out of country, without the right to ever return. Uri Avnery, co-founder of Gush Shalom peace group, qualified Israeli government's strategy of targeting terrorist infrastructure as nonsense: "terrorist infrastructure exists in the hearts of millions of Palestinians” (Townshend, 2002: 121). Thus we understand why Lisa's father is convinced that all Palestinians are terrorists. Scholar consider that any “act of violence or threat of violence against a person or group of persons; which are not engaged in a military role (paramilitary); in order to manipulate the population or government policy satisfy the definition of terrorist act “(Arădăvoaice, Naghi, 2002: 66 ). It is noted here, the car explosion near an Israeli settlement, intentionally caused by Hani, Miral’s friend, member of Intifada. This is therefore ranked as an act of terrorism. Incidentally, Miral is also accused of being part of a terrorist organization, because she was seen in the presence of Hani. 2.2 Testimony Miral movie is inspired by the novel with the same name written by Rula Jebrel and presents Miral Sahin testimony regarding the political situation in the Arab world, namely the Israeli- Palestinian conflict and how the course of events changed her life. Film ends with the memorable phrase: “This film is dedicated to both sides who still believe peace is possible” In order to understand the life of the protagonist the movie presents three life stories of some Palestinian women who have influenced Miral’s life.
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Adolf Eichmann in Buenos Aires
    CAPTURING THE DEVIL The real story of the capture of Adolph Eichmann Based on the memoirs of Peter Zvi Malkin A feature film written and directed by Philippe Azoulay PITCH Peter Zvi Malkin, one of the best Israeli agents, is volunteering to be part of the commando set up to capture Adolf Eichmann in Buenos Aires. As the others, he wants to take revenge for the killing of his family, but the mission is to bring Eichmann alive so that he may be put on trial in Jerusalem. As Peter comes to consider his prisoner an ordinary and banal being he wants to understand the incomprehensible. To do so, he disobeys orders. During the confrontation between the soldier and his prisoner, a strange relationship develops… CAPTURING THE DEVIL HISTORICAL CONTEXT 1945 The Nuremberg trial is intended to clear the way to for the rebuilding of Western Europe Several Nazi hierarchs have managed to hide or escape Europe 1945 Adolph Eichmann who has organized the deportations and killings of millions of people is hiding in Europe. 1950 Eichmann is briefly detained in Germany but escapes to South America thanks to a Red Cross passport. In Europe and in Israel, Jews who survived the camps try to move into a new life. The young state of Israel fights for its survival throughout two wars in 1948 and 1956. The Nazi hunt is considered a “private“ matter. 1957 the Bavarian General Attorney Fritz Bauer, who has engaged into a second denazification of Germany’s elite, gets confirmation that Eichmann may be located in Argentina.
    [Show full text]
  • FILMS on Palestine-Israel By
    PALESTINE-ISRAEL FILMS ON THE HISTORY of the PALESTINE-ISRAEL CONFLICT compiled with brief introduction and commentary by Rosalyn Baxandall A publication of the Palestine-Israel Working Group of Historians Against the War (HAW) December 2014 www.historiansagainstwar.org Licensed under Creative Commons Attribution – NonCommercial – ShareAlike 1 Introduction This compilation of films that relate to the Palestinian-Israeli struggle was made in July 2014. The films are many and the project is ongoing. Why film? Film is often an extraordinarily effective tool. I found that many students in my classes seemed more visually literate than print literate. Whenever I showed a film, they would remember the minute details, characters names and sub-plots. Films were accessible and immediate. Almost the whole class would participate and debates about the film’s meaning were lively. Film showings also improved attendance at teach-ins. At the Truro, Massachusetts, Library in July 2014, the film Voices Across the Divide was shown to the biggest audiences the library has ever had, even though the Wellfleet Library and several churches had refused to allow the film to be shown. Organizing is also important. When a film is controversial, as many in this pamphlet are, a thorough organizing effort including media coverage will augment the turnout for the film. Many Jewish and Palestinian groups list films in their resources. This pamphlet lists them alphabetically, and then by number under themes and categories; the main listings include summaries, to make the films more accessible and easier to use by activist and academic groups. 2 1. 5 Broken Cameras, 2012.
    [Show full text]
  • Julian Schnabel Childhood and Other Graphic Works
    JULIAN SCHNABEL CHILDHOOD AND OTHER GRAPHIC WORKS September 14 – November 11, 2017 Opening: September 13 | 6 – 9 pm Circle Culture | Gipsstraße 11 | 10119 Berlin Reception at Hotel de Rome with acoustic live music by Frida Gold: September 15 | 5 – 7 pm Hotel de Rome | Behrenstraße 37 | 10117 Berlin Childhood (4), 2016, carbon print on etching paper, 80 x 57 cm On the occasion of this year’s Berlin Art Week, Circle Culture is delighted to present graphic works by American artist and filmmaker Julian Schnabel. The two-part exhibition will be on display at Circle Culture, Gipsstraße 11 and at Hotel de Rome, and will be opening on two evenings. This first exhibition of the gallery with Julian Schnabel also marks the return of Circle Culture to its place of origin in Berlin-Mitte. This place will be revitalized as a main location for exhibitions, round tables and cultural projects in a wide spectrum. Graphic works represent an impressive compendium within the oeuvre of Julian Schnabel, which he continues with the current works for the first time after 18 years. As in his paintings, they reflect the diversity and intrinsic creative urge of the artist, who constantly applies surprising printing techniques and materials. Characteristic for Julian Schnabel‘s expressionist work is the free experimentation with different materials, techniques and also citations. His complex overpaintings are characterized by associative, encyclopedic- seeming visual worlds, which Schnabel borrows and alienates artistically. The results are intertextual embed- ded works of art with a deliberately open character. Often they tell about the hidden, the fragmentary yet seemingly all-connected, while moving along an emotional and irrational level with an expressive intensity.
    [Show full text]
  • Blooms Hilton Als
    Blooms Hilton Als Taken together, Julian Schnabel’s canvases are a garden illuminated by perception, which is all Gertrude Stein’s “Rose is a rose is a rose is a rose” was about—how we look at what we look at, how to make seeing into words. Schnabel’s masterly Rose Paintings series, exe- cuted in 2015–17, are blooms that will never die on the vine, let alone the vine of thought. The works are a description of the ephemeral—flowers as forces in nature that expire to blossom again. By using materials meant to last—oil, paint, Bondo on wood—Schnabel creates concrete forms out of that which is meant to return to the ground. In these works, he excavates flowers, those captives of time that die with time, and makes them timeless, in pictures that draw on nature to make of it what the artist will—and does. Schnabel makes paintings that are illustrative of his nature. The artist first attracted widespread attention more than three decades ago for work that was unlike anything else, because the Brooklyn-born Schnabel’s point of view has always been unlike anyone else’s. His eye is a rose. In paintings ranging from Self Portrait in Andy’s Shadow (1987) to the Untitled (Chinese Paintings) series (initiated in 2003), the creator worked in a tradition that could not be readily identified because it was his own, an out- growth of his soul. Like flowers that cannot be classified, the Rose paintings come at you from different angles. One painting looks at the roses a little from the left, some are more centered—all of which goes to show how one’s view of a thing can change the thing being observed; our percep- tions change paintings, just as paint changes blank canvas.
    [Show full text]
  • Loni Crowe ([email protected]), Coordinator of Orientation and Family Programs, First Year Programs, Eastern Kentucky University
    Miral by Rula Jebreal Published by Penguin Books, 2010, 309 pages Reviewed by: Loni Crowe ([email protected]), Coordinator of Orientation and Family Programs, First Year Programs, Eastern Kentucky University Overview Miral takes the reader on a journey spanning nearly five decades, beginning with the establishment of the Dar El-Tifel orphanage and up through the founder, Hind Husseini’s, death in 1994. Set primarily in Jerusalem, the book sheds light on the Palestinian-Israeli conflict as it explores the experiences of the characters through the period of the First Intifada. While the biographical components of the story of Hind Husseini are true, the author draws from her own life experiences. The story begins decades prior to Miral’s birth, and the reader follows her development and growth into a young woman during the 1980s. Even though the story may start out slowly and be challenging to engage with initially, as the book progresses, the pace also picks up and becomes a much faster read. While this coming-of-age story highlights the Palestinian-Israeli conflict and contains political undertones, it also communicates the importance of education and educational opportunity, philanthropic work and servant leadership, and compassion and selflessness in the name of a cause. Intertwined stories paint a picture from multiple perspectives from within the world in which Miral was raised. These narratives and interconnected characters and sub-plots essentially turn the faceless masses of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict into identifiable and relatable characters caught in the religious and political upheavals of their homeland. The author has structured the experiences of the main characters within the context of five primary parts: Hind, Nadia, Fatima, Miral, and Hani.
    [Show full text]
  • Humanitarian Was Never Enough Stonebridge, Lyndsey
    Humanitarian was never enough Stonebridge, Lyndsey DOI: 10.1353/hum.2017.0027 License: None: All rights reserved Document Version Publisher's PDF, also known as Version of record Citation for published version (Harvard): Stonebridge, L 2017, 'Humanitarian was never enough: Dorothy Thompson, Sands of Sorrow and the Arabs of Palestine' Humanity, vol. 8, no. 3, pp. 441-465. https://doi.org/10.1353/hum.2017.0027 Link to publication on Research at Birmingham portal Publisher Rights Statement: Checked for eligibility: 05/03/2019 All rights reserved. Except for brief quotations used for purposes of scholarly citation, none of this work may be reproduced in any form by any means without written permission from the publisher. For information address the University of Pennsylvania Press, 3905 Spruce Street, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19104-4112' General rights Unless a licence is specified above, all rights (including copyright and moral rights) in this document are retained by the authors and/or the copyright holders. The express permission of the copyright holder must be obtained for any use of this material other than for purposes permitted by law. •Users may freely distribute the URL that is used to identify this publication. •Users may download and/or print one copy of the publication from the University of Birmingham research portal for the purpose of private study or non-commercial research. •User may use extracts from the document in line with the concept of ‘fair dealing’ under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 (?) •Users may not further distribute the material nor use it for the purposes of commercial gain.
    [Show full text]
  • 1 This Is an Accepted Manuscript of an Article Published by Taylor
    From Belsen to Gaza: The Promise (2011), British and British-Jewish Identity Emiliano Perra Department of History, University of Winchester, Winchester, UK Correspondence: Emiliano Perra, University of Winchester, Sparkford Road, Winchester SO22 4NR, UK Email: [email protected] Emiliano Perra is Senior Lecturer in Modern European History at the University of Winchester. He is the author of Conflicts of Memory: The Reception of Holocaust Films and Television Programmes in the Italian Press, 1945 to the Present (2010). Perra’s work focuses on the memory and representation of genocide, and he is co-editor of the Journal of Perpetrator Research. This article discusses some of the issues raised by Peter Kosminsky’s miniseries The Promise (2011) and investigates the intense public responses it engendered in Britain. The first part of the article explores how the miniseries takes the lead from the paradigmatic British Holocaust memory of the liberation of Belsen to engage with issues of British national self-perception. Drawing on Paul Gilroy’s notion of ‘postimperial melancholia’, the article argues that The Promise explores important issues related to Britain’s past and present, in particular the lasting heritage of Empire. The second part of the article engages with the intense reception of the miniseries among opinion makers and the general public, with many critics seeing The Promise as aimed at delegitimising the State of Israel both historically and in relation to the present. In thus doing, the article will situate the debate within the broader context of discussions on the supposed relationship between anti-Zionism and the so-called “new anti- Semitism”, and more specifically discussion of the role of anti-Zionist Jews.
    [Show full text]
  • Miscegenation and the Literary Imagination in Israel-Palestine
    PRIVATE AFFECTIONS: MISCEGENATION AND THE LITERARY IMAGINATION IN ISRAEL-PALESTINE Hella Bloom Cohen, B.A., M.A. Dissertation Prepared for the Degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY UNIVERSITY OF NORTH TEXAS May 2014 APPROVED: Masood Ashraf Raja, Major Professor Deborah Needleman Armintor, Committee Member Nicole D. Smith, Committee Member Laila Amine, Committee Member David Holdeman, Chair of the Department of English Mark Wardell, Dean of the Toulouse Graduate School Cohen, Hella Bloom, Private Affections: Miscegenation and the Literary Imagination in Israel-Palestine. Doctor of Philosophy (English), May 2014, 188 pp., references, 133 titles. This study politicizes the mixed relationship in Israeli-Palestinian literature. I examine Arab-Jewish and interethnic Jewish intimacy in works by Palestinian national poet Mahmoud Darwish, canonical Israeli novelist A. B. Yehoshua, select anthologized Anglophone and translated Palestinian and Israeli poetry, and Israeli feminist writer Orly Castel-Bloom. I also examine the material cultural discourses issuing from Israel’s textile industry, in which Arabs and Jews interact. Drawing from the methodology of twentieth-century Brazilian miscegenation theorist Gilberto Freyre, I argue that mixed intimacies in the Israeli-Palestinian imaginary represent a desire to restructure a hegemonic public sphere in the same way Freyre’s Brazilian mestizo was meant to rhetorically undermine what he deemed a Western cult of uniformity. This project constitutes a threefold contribution. I offer one of the few postcolonial perspectives on Israeli literature, as it remains underrepresented in the field in comparison to its Palestinian counterparts. I also present the first sustained critique of the hetero relationship and the figure of the hybrid in Israeli-Palestinian literature, especially as I focus on its representation for political options rather than its aesthetic intrigue.
    [Show full text]
  • The Occupation of the American Mind
    THE OCCUPATION OF THE AMERICAN MIND ISRAEL’S PUBLIC RELATIONS WAR IN THE UNITED STATES A DOCUMENTARY NARRATED BY ROGER WATERS “It doesn’t matter if justice is on your side. You have to depict your position as just.” —Benjamin Netanyahu, Prime Minister of Israel Over the past few years, Israel’s ongoing military occupation of Palestinian territory and repeated invasions of the Gaza strip have triggered a fierce backlash against Israeli policies virtually everywhere in the world—except the United States. The Occupation of the American Mind takes an eye-opening look at this critical exception, zeroing in on pro-Israel public relations efforts within the U.S. Narrated by Roger Waters and featuring leading observers of the Israeli- Palestinian conflict and U.S. media culture, the film explores how the Israeli government, the U.S. government, and the pro-Israel lobby have joined forces, often with very different motives, to shape American media coverage of the conflict in Israel’s favor. From the U.S.-based public relations campaigns that emerged in the 1980s to today, the film provides a sweeping analysis of Israel’s decades-long battle for the hearts, minds, and tax dollars of the American people in the face of widening international condemnation of its increasingly right-wing policies. ISRAEL’S PUBLIC THE OCCUPATION OF RELATIONS WAR IN THE AMERICAN MIND THE UNITED STATES FILMMAKERS' STATEMENT Over the past 25 years, the Media Education Foundation has produced dozens of educational films that examine how mainstream media narratives shape our understanding of the world. A number of these films have focused explicitly on mainstream news coverage of crucial policy issues.
    [Show full text]
  • The Portrayal of Patriarchy in Miral Novel
    THE PORTRAYAL OF PATRIARCHY IN MIRAL NOVEL Nurbaity 2225083055 A Thesis Submitted as the Partial Fulfillment in the Requirement for the Degree of “Sarjana Sastra” ENGLISH DEPARTMENT FACULTY OF LANGUAGES AND ARTS STATE UNIVERSITY OF JAKARTA 2012 ABSTRACT Nurbaity .2012. The Portrayal of Patriarchy in Miral Novel. Thesis: Jakarta, English Department, Faculty of Languages and Arts, State University of Jakarta Patriarchy is one of feminism issue revealed in literary works. The aim of this study are to reveal patriarchy portrayed in Miral novel and how Nadia reacts against patriarchy. This study applies descriptive analytical intepretative study by describing narrations and dialogues which indicating patriarchy and intepreting the data based on theories. This study used theory from Walby that explains patriarchy deals with gender discrimination and violence against women. Bardwick and Douvan’s theory of feminist and traditional traits used in reveal Nadia’s reactions against patriarchy. In Nadia’s life, her position in patriarchy as the object of men’s rule. The results of the study show that patriarchy portayed in forms of gender discrimination and violence against women. The percentage is showing the number of narrations and dialogue which indicating patriarchy. The dominant form of patriarchy portrayed in Miral are violence against women, 67.3 percent that used by men to show their dominance over women through psychological violence 36.5 percent, sexual violence 19.2 percent, physical violence 7.7 percent, and financial violence 3.9 percent. Other form of patriarchy is gender discrimination 32.7 percent in which women treat as subordinated group. Patriarchy experienced by Nadia in her adolescence, adulthood, and marriage life.
    [Show full text]
  • Palestinian Authors and Their Novels and Memoirs
    Palestinian Authors and Their Novels and Memoirs 1. RANDA ABDEL FATTAH Where the Streets Had a Name (2010) is the story of 13-year-old Born in Sydney in 1979 to Palestinian-Egyptian Hayaat who lives in Bethlehem with her large and chaotic family. When parents; studied Arts and Law in Melbourne; her grandmother falls ill, she and her best friend Samy go on a mission worked for Islamic Council of Victoria; candidate to Jerusalem to bring back soil from her grandmother’s ancestral for Unity Party (multiculturalist party) in 1998; has home, hoping that this might reawaken her zest for life. Their journey, worked for several human rights and interfaith although just a few miles long, turns into a dangerous adventure, as associations, e.g., Australian Arabic council, the they pass checkpoints, defy curfews, sneak past soldiers. Victorian Migrant Resource Centre, the Islamic Women’s Welfare Council, the Palestine Human Rights Campaign; has published seven books. 2. LEILA ABDELRAZAQ Baddawi (2015) is a graphic novel explores the childhood of the au- Born in 1992 in Chicago; BFA in Theatre Arts and thor’s father in the 1960s and 1970s from a boy’s eye view as he wit- BA in Arabic Studies from DePaul University, 2015; nesses the world crumbling around him and attempts to carry on, forg- MA in Modern Middle Eastern & North African ing his own path in the midst of terrible uncertainty. It tells the story Studies from the University of Michigan, 2020; of a young boy named Ahmad struggling to find his place in the world.
    [Show full text]
  • Julian Schnabel
    JULIAN SCHNABEL Filmmaker and Neo-expressionist artist Julian Schnabel’s large-scale paintings are materially and thematically monumental, drawing on a wealth of influences from Cubism to the practice of Cy Twombly and themes such as sexuality, obsession, suffering, redemption, death, and belief. Crowded with paint drips, dynamic brushstrokes, and found materials including broken plates, textiles, tarpaulins, and velvet, many of Schnabel’s paintings combine painting and collage techniques. Of his many portraits, perhaps the best known is the oil on velvet Portrait of Andy Warhol (1982), in which the almost translucent subject shares the canvas with a Pollock-esque splatter of paint. Schnabel‘s work has been exhibited all over the world. His paintings, sculptures, and works on paper are included in public collec- tions including the Museum of Modern Art, New York; Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles; Guggenheim Museum, New York and Bilbao; Tate Gallery, London; Museum of Contemporary Art, Tokyo; Museum of Fine Arts, Houston; Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía, Madrid; National Gallery of Art, Washington D.C.; National Gallery of Australia, Canberra; San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco; Hamburger Bahnhof, Berlin; Kunstmuseum, Basel; Fondation Musée d’Art Moderne, Luxembourg; and Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris. In 1996 Schnabel wrote and directed the feature film Basquiat about fellow New York artist Jean-Michel Basquiat. The film was in the official selection of the 1996 Venice Film Festival. Schnabel’s second film, Before Night Falls, based on the life of the late exiled Cuban novelist Reinaldo Arenas, won both the Grand Jury Prize and the Coppa Volpi for best actor, Javier Bardem, at the 2000 Venice Film Festival.
    [Show full text]